About Holiday Pies by Chef Brenda

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About Holiday Pies

Everyone knows the holidays can get crazy. Especially where food is concerned. Too much to do in too little time. Too much to prepare and cook in too little space. Dessert is the last item on the menu and it often suffers. “I don’t bake” is the usual go-to excuse for the last minute grocery store pies. Fear not. You can do much of the pie work ahead of time.

• Buy disposable pie pans, make your crust, roll out and put in the pans. Wrap well and freeze. You can (and should in most cases) bake the filled pie with the crust still frozen. It helps prevent sogginess. Pie dough freezes beautifully, so keep some on hand year-round and you can get a pie into the oven in 15 minutes or less.

• If it is a fruit pie, fill the frozen crust with the fruit filling (you may want to add a little extra flour or cornstarch, depending on how juicy the fruit is), top with another crust, vent, wrap well and freeze the whole pie. Add about 10 minutes to the bake time to account for the frozen crust.

• Nut pies (like pecan) should be fully assembled and then frozen.

• Custard pies are a bit tricker, since they tend to separate. Freeze the crust and filling separately. Freeze the filling in an airtight container immediately after making it. Defrost the filling in the refrigerator overnight (but not longer), NOT on the counter or in the microwave. Whisk the defrosted filling very well to break up any ice crystals, fill and bake immediately.

• If you don’t want to go the freezer route for the fillings, make a “pie kit”. Have the frozen crust ready and make a kit of plastic bags with all the ingredients you need for the pie…for instance, toast the pecans, chop and put in a plastic bag for a pecan pie and combine the “syrup ingredients” in another bag. If you are using a leavening agent such as baking soda or baking powder, store that in a bag separately from the rest of the ingredients. When you are ready to bake the pie, dump all the filling ingredients into a bowl, mix, fill the frozen crust and bake. Remember to label everything. I make a copy of the recipe and store it in the bag with the dry ingredients.

• Don’t freeze fillings or completely assembled pies for more than one month.

• “Wrap well” means several layers of plastic wrap and a plastic bag or foil.
• Disposables such a plastic bags, really cut down pie-making time. I know it’s not great for the environment, but the only time I use throw away items is at holidays.

• I make 4-5 homemade pies every holiday and I can get them all of them into the oven in about ½ hour using the methods above.

• If all else fails, use a prepared pie dough (no judging!) and make your fillings fresh.

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